Topps Tiles has revealed worsening recent trading as shoppers put off renovating their homes amid the “stagnation” in the housing market.

The UK’s largest tile and wood flooring specialist, which operates 321 stores, said like-for-like sales declined 6.9% in the seven weeks since the end of September, having been down 2% over the previous financial year.

And it expects conditions to remain difficult in 2012 as shoppers’ spending power continues to be squeezed, the weak housing market puts people off home improvements, and fears of a double-dip recession force shoppers to delay purchasing expensive items.

The Leicester-based groupreported a 15% fall in underlying profits to £13.9 million in the year to October 1 as it battled “very challenging trading conditions”.